


Full Moons and Blood Espressos

by Dewy_Peach



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Domestic Fluff, Fairies, Non-binary!Liechtenstein, Nonbinary Character, Other, Trans Female Character, Trans!Hungary, Vampires, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-25 04:27:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22069903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dewy_Peach/pseuds/Dewy_Peach
Summary: Erzsébet's runs a little night café for the supernatural community in her city. Her boyfriends drop by for their nightly visit.
Relationships: Austria/Hungary/Prussia (Hetalia), Belarus/Liechtenstein (Hetalia)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 31





	Full Moons and Blood Espressos

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rhythmickorbit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhythmickorbit/gifts).



> Happy new year Vee! I hope you enjoy this <3

It was 4 AM, still dark outside but with a pale strip of light appearing behind the city skyline. For Erzsébet it meant that closing time was soon, and the night café was quiet. She was cleaning up behind the bar, humming along to an ABBA song on the radio when she heard a knock on the door.

“Honey, I’m home!” the man at the door said in a sing-song, his voice coming through muffled. The door was slightly open, but he didn’t step in. There was a dusting of snowflakes on his dark hair and his glasses were steamed over.

The corner of Erzsébet’s mouth curved up. “Come in,” she said. “What’s  _ that  _ about?”

Roderich made his way to the bar, wiping snow off the shoulders of his shabby suit. “It sounded nice in my head. I wanted to try saying that, because, you know, this is where you are, and this is where we met Gil…” He trailed off, looking sheepish.

Erzsébet laughed. “That’s sweet.” She leaned over the bar to kiss him. “You’re so cold.”

He smiled. “What’s new?”

“Can I make you something?” she asked.

“Same as usual, please.”

Erzsébet rolled her eyes. “You sure? We have a set of holiday specials. They’re very popular.”

“But I already  _ know  _ that I like the B+ Espresso,” he argued. “I’d rather not risk trying something that I might  _ not  _ like.”

Erzsébet shrugged. “If you insist.” She checked in the fridge. “We might be out of B+, actually. Let me look in the back.”

As she went into the back room, Roderich pulled out a chair at the bar and sat down, letting out a contented sigh. The cold outside never bothered him, but being here still made him feel blessedly warm.

There was a knock on the door again. 

“Oh hello, Gilbert,” Roderich called. He gave a cheerful wave.

“Hey, Rod,” Gilbert replied dryly. The snow was almost invisible on his pale hair and he looked like he hadn’t gotten any sleep, which was, of course, the case. He shifted restlessly from foot to foot. “Can you please invite me in?”

“The door’s open,” Roderich said sweetly.

“Ugh, Rod! Come on!” Gilbert had glitter sprinkled all over his face, which made his frown significantly less threatening.

“What do you mean?” Roderich pulled on an expression of innocent confusion. “Why can’t you just enter?”

Gilbert raised his fist. It hit an invisible barrier in the air. “If you don’t invite me in this instant,” he yelled, voice muffled, “I swear to all things unholy—”

“What’s going on?” Erzsébet came back into the main room, carrying a sealed blood bag. “Sweetheart, are you teasing Gil again? Gilbert — please come in. Rod —” she gave him a displeased scowl. 

Roderich seemed to shrink under her gaze. He opened his mouth to apologise, but Gilbert came charging directly at them. “You don’t understand what happened,” he exclaimed without any form of greeting.

“What happened?” Erzsébet asked.

Gilbert pulled out a chair and flopped down next to Roderich. “I finally made a friend at work,” 

Roderich raised an eyebrow. “That’s a good thing, no?”

Gilbert groaned. “Well yeah, but I totally messed it up!”

“What happened?” Erzsébet repeated patiently.

Gilbert started talking frantically. “There’s this really nice new guy that I share a shift with, and we started really  _ talking  _ and you know, I think we’ve been bonding? Anyway, he mentioned he likes to cook, and I said I’d love to try his cooking sometime, so yesterday he— he brought me pasta.”

“Alright?” Roderich blinked, catching up. “So?”

“It was  _ Spaghetti aglio e olio!”  _ Gilbert said meaningfully.

Erzsébet and Roderich exchanged a look. “What’s that?” Erzsébet asked.

Gilbert threw his hands in the air. “Well, I didn’t know either, but apparently that’s pasta with garlic!” He put his head in his hands. “Garlic! I couldn’t eat it! And jeez, now he probably thinks I hated it… Or that I hate  _ him!” _

“Why…” Erzsébet’s brow furrowed. “Why didn’t you just tell him you’re allergic?”

“Because I’m an idiot!” Gilbert wailed, collapsing over the bar.

Roderich was holding back his laughter, shoulders shaking. “Oh come on, you’re not an idiot,” he said. “What did you do?”

“I…” Gilbert’s voice went small. “Sort of panicked and ran away?”

“Oh God,” Roderich choked, then burst out laughing, folding over in his seat.

“Rod!” Gilbert called, offended. “How _ can _ you even curse with that name?”

“Practice,” Roderich grinned, wiping tears from his eyes. “You’ll get there in a few decades.”

Erzsébet reached a hand and gently touched Gilbert’s hairline, catching his attention. “Just talk to him. Explain yourself.”

The gesture made Gilbert’s shoulders relax slightly. “I don’t know how. What a mess…” 

Just then, the doorbell jingled, and the three of them turned to look. A couple was standing at the door. “I’ll be just a moment,” Erzsébet said, pressing a kiss to Gilbert’s forehead. “Consider the holiday specials while I’m gone.” It was a little late for customers, but she recognised those two. “Come in!” she called.

The girl was one of those vampires who stuck with the classic folk tale aesthetic, with snow-white skin, pale blond hair, blood-red lipstick and the rest. She wore it well. Her partner was shorter by at least a head and was wearing a soft pink woollen hat, which Erzsébet knew was hiding a pair of pointed ears. Natalya and Erika were old friends, from back when the supernatural community in the city was just starting out.

“Good morning, Erzsi,” Erika greeted with a bright smile as the two settled next to a small table near the frosted-over window. “Sorry we’re so late, we just got back to town. We were visiting my family for the holidays.”

Erzsébet returned her smile — it was hard not to. “That’s alright, I’m still here. How’s the family doing?”

Erika sighed. “Alright, I guess.”

Natalya touched their shoulder sympathetically. “Erika’s family is moving house,” she explained. “They’re going deeper into the forest because of renovations in the area. The new roads are going to pass too close to where they used to live. We were helping a bit. It’s a pretty tiring business.”

“Sounds like it,” Erzsébet agreed. “Must be upsetting to see them leave your childhood home, too.”

“Pretty much… Eh,” Erika waved it away. “It’s fine. Say, random question — are you still hiring?”

Erzsébet nodded. “I actually haven’t found anyone yet. Why?”

“One of my cousins is thinking about moving to the city, and he’s looking for a job.”

“If he’s anything like you, I’d love to have him,” Erzsébet said sincerely. “Bring him over next time, so I can get to know him.” It would be great if it worked out; with how popular the café was becoming, it was getting harder and harder to keep track of everything on her own. “So, what will you two be having?”

Back at the table, Roderich was doing his best to cheer Gilbert up. He was feeling a little guilty about earlier. “Hey,” he said, patting Gilbert’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. It’ll be alright.”

Gilbert glanced at him. “You think?”

“Y-yeah. Just call him and apologise.”

“Call?” Gilbert looked horrified. “No, I’ll text him.” 

“Alright,” Roderich said, uncomfortable. He waited. “Are you doing that?” he asked at last, when he saw that Gilbert wasn’t making any move.

Reluctantly, Gilbert pulled out his phone. “Help me out here.”

“Sure, I’ll tell you what to write. Are you typing?”

Gilbert narrowed his eyes, but nodded.

“ _ Dear friend-name _ ,” Roderich began. “Write his name here, if that wasn’t clear.”

Gilbert, suspiciously, did as told.

“ _ I wanted to apologise for my earlier behaviour,”  _ Roderich continued. “ _ I didn’t mean to leave so abruptly—” _

“That’s a tame way to put it,” Gilbert noted, looking up from his phone.

“ _ —Didn’t mean to leave so abruptly,”  _ Roderich repeated, ignoring him, _ “but I’m afraid I had no choice. I forgot to tell you that I’m allergic to garlic. My case is a serious one and even being in the same room with the fumes can cause severe damage to my systems. I didn’t mean to offend you and your exquisite cooking and I hope we can share a garlic-free meal next time. Sincerely, Gilbert.”  _

Gilbert read over the text. He shook his head, a smile spreading across his face for the first time since he came in. “This is terrible,” he said. “I know you’re like, a hundred years old, but you don’t have to  _ text  _ like it.”

“What— “ Roderich frowned. “Still? I tried my best to make it short and to the point.”

“Your problem,” Gilbert told him fondly, “is that you’re thinking of this as of writing a letter.”

“But that’s what it is!” Roderich exclaimed. “Instant lettering.”

“Instant  _ messaging. _ ”

“I’m just trying to be polite,” Roderich complained.

“I know.” Gilbert’s eyes glinted “It’s really cute.”

As opposed to common misconception, vampires  _ could  _ blush, and Roderich definitely did just then, which Gilbert found to be even more adorable.

Erzsébet came back a moment later to find them all over each other. Roderich’s B+ Espresso was slowly cooling down on the bar. She rested her chin on her palm and watched them with a wide grin. Gilbert was trying to help Roderich out of his suit jacket with their faces still glued together, and almost tipped over both of the high chairs that they were sitting on. He flailed and caught the edge of the bar, stopping them from falling. The two stared at each other, panting, before noticing Erzsébet’s laughter.

They turned to her. “He started,” Gilbert said cheekily.

“What?!” Roderich shot him a look. “That’s  _ not  _ true— “

Erzsébet started laughing again. “No, don’t let me interrupt.”

“Actually, can you help me here?” Gilbert asked. He landed his stool back on its four legs with a thump. “I think I have more or less of an idea for a text.” He showed Erzsébet his phone.

“Ah, nice,” she said. “Short, sincere and to the point.”

“Roderich helped a lot.”

Roderich rolled his eyes. “You used maybe 5 words out of my 50.”

“Well, yes, I kept the gist of it.”

“It’s good,” Erzsébet said decisively. “Send it.”

Gilbert hit send. “Okay, that’s done,” he said, breathing slowly to calm himself. Then he yelped in panic. “He’s typing!”

“It’s gonna be fine,” Erzsébet assured. She squeezed his shoulder.

_ Ping!  _ A new message appeared in green. Erzsébet and Roderich leaned in to read over Gilbert’s shoulder.

_ Jeez, why didn’t you tell me? I was really worried (and kind of offended ;p) but anyway don’t worry about it, I’ll make you something garlic free next time. See you tomorrow night :) _

“Whew,” Gilbert breathed. “I mean, I feel bad for offending him but—”

“It’s fine,” Roderich cut him off. “Don’t worry about it.”

Erzsébet tilted her head at Roderich’s forgotten cup of coffee. “It’s growing cold,” she pointed out.

“Thanks.” Roderich picked it up carefully and wrapped his fingers around it. “What are you getting?” he asked Gilbert.

“Uh — Holiday specials, was it?” He looked at the chalkboard sign for the first time, still looking a little stunned. “The— uh… hot chocolate with marshmallows sounds great.”

“Ah, good choice,” Erzsébet said. “AB+ balances out the sweetness nicely, I think. I’m told that it’s kinda like salted caramel.” She took a second blood bag out from the fridge and working some inexplicable magic (at least to her boyfriends’ eyes) with the coffee machine. 

“Now that Gil is done complaining,” Roderich said, sipping his lukewarm coffee, “I think it’s my turn.”

“Spill,” Erzsébet ordered.

“I got invited to play with the national symphony orchestra. But it’s in the middle of the day, outside. In the town hall park.”

“Make up some excuse,” Gilbert said immediately. “Tell them I died.”

Roderich rolled his eyes. “You’re  _ already  _ dead.”

“See? It won’t even be a lie.”

Roderich shook his head. “The excuse isn’t the problem. I’m just…” He sighed. “It’s a pity. I’d like to be able to accept.”

Erzsébet looked up from the coffee machine with a sympathetic grimace. “I’m sorry, babe. I know you’ve always wanted to play with the symphony.”

Gilbert was still frowning thoughtfully. “What if… what if you somehow convince them to make it a night-time performance?”

“Oh, that wouldn’t be suspicious at all,” Roderich scoffed.

Erzsébet raised a finger. “No, what if? You’re friends with that conductor person, right? What if you suggest making it some sort of light show? You can suggest a fitting piece. It might even raise more of an audience.”

“I suppose,” Roderich said dubiously.

“Isn’t it worth a try?” Gilbert asked. “And if it doesn’t work, you can always just give us a private performance.”

Roderich chuckled. “But you get those all the time.”

“And they’ll never get boring to me,” Gilbert insisted, putting his hand on his heart.

Erzsébet found herself grinning again. She couldn’t help it — seeing her boyfriends being sweet and supportive of each other was almost too much for her heart. She placed a steaming mug in front of Gilbert. “Your hot chocolate’s ready.”

“Oh, thanks.” Gilbert picked it up and inhaled the scent. His eyes went wide.

Erzsébet grinned. “Just a second,” she excused herself again, walking to Erika and Natalya’s table with plates and cups held carefully in her hands. 

“I hope you like the blood pancakes,” she said to Natalya as she carefully put down the plates. “I found the recipe on Fangbook just yesterday, so tell me if you have any suggestions for improvement.”

“I should probably create an account too, look for some recipes.” Natalya unhooked her fingers from Erika’s and picked up a fork. “Drinking blood straight out of the vein can get awfully boring.”

Erzsébet held back a laugh. That was the kind of line you couldn’t hear anywhere else. “And here’s your honey pancakes, Erika, as usual.”

This time, when she turned back to the bar, she found Roderich and Gilbert staring at her, whispering to each other.

“What,” she said, amused, as she reached them.

“You look beautiful,” Gilbert blurted out.

Roderich smiled. “That’s not what we were going to say, but yes, I agree.”

She could feel herself blushing, unconsciously raising her hand to cover her smile. “At least you agree about  _ something _ ,” she mumbled. 

Roderich and Gilbert glanced at each other, grinning in a self-satisfied way that would’ve been annoying if it wasn’t so endearing. “Wanna sit?” Gilbert asked. “We wanted to ask you something.”

They made space for her in between the two of them, and she pulled another chair and sat. “What is it?”

Gilbert looked at Roderich expectantly. Roderich, in turn, cleared his throat. “Tomorrow’s the full moon, right?” he asked, hesitant.

Erzsébet’s shoulders tensed. “Yeah.”

“We wanted to ask if you’d…” Roderich hesitated. “If you’d like to spend it with us, maybe?”

“I —” Erzsébet looked from one of them to the other. “I’m sorry?”

“We want to be there for you,” Gilbert offered. “Like you’re always here for us.”

“But that’s not the same,” Erzsébet said, her heart rate picking up. “It can be dangerous.”

“Actually,” Roderich said. He took off his glasses and wiped them on his sleeve, clearly looking for something to fidget with. “We— umm — did some research, and it seems like werewolves usually aren’t interested in vampires as prey. Because of the cold blood, you see.”

“Research?” Erzsébet repeated, incredulous.

“Nothing serious,” Gilbert said, a little too quickly. 

Erzsébet crossed her arms. “What did you two do?”

“That’s not important,” Roderich said, looking a little paler than usual. “But anyhow, with our vampire abilities, I believe we’d be able to handle the situation even if you  _ did  _ turn against us, which is something that I find very unlikely considering how you’ve also learned to control your own abilities— “

“Well yeah,” Erzsébet said, increasingly uneasy. Lately, when  _ that time of the month _ arrived, she just napped it off, curled up on the couch. “But I never tested my control around  _ living people _ .”

“Undead people,” Gilbert corrected, then flinched at Roderich’s scolding look.  _ Not the time,  _ it seemed to say.

“We don’t even have to be in the same room,” Roderich tried. “We can just… wait around until you feel better. We can make some food, draw you a bath for when it’s all over, just… be there in case you want some company, you know?”

“I really don’t know about that,” Erzsébet said weakly, wrapping her arms around herself. “I really appreciate it, but I wouldn’t want to put you in danger.”

“I hate to play this card,” Gilbert said, “but you’re literally putting yourself in danger every day when you hang out with us.”

“That’s not the same— “

“We’ll be alright, darling,” Roderich said. “Listen, if you don’t want that, we won’t press, but we just want you to know that you can always count on us. Even if — “ he looked at Gilbert. “Help me out here.”

“We love everything about you and your shape-shifting is part of you too, and we won’t love you any less because of that. Even more if anything, because we’re so proud of how far you’ve come,” Gilbert said in one breath.

Roderich nodded slowly, looking positively surprised. “Again, not what I was aiming for, but I agree.”

Erzsébet realised that she was tearing up. She could barely speak past the tears in her throat. “How did you know what I was thinking about,” she managed. 

“I’m a mind reader,” Gilbert smiled. Then his face fell. “Erzsi, are you alright? I didn’t mean—”

“I’m fine,” she sniffed. She blew her nose on a napkin. “I’ll think about it, okay? I don’t know about this month, but maybe next month we can work something out. It could be really nice to have you around, but I need time to get used to the idea.” 

She really did think that the full moons could be much more bearable with her boyfriends nearby, ready to shower her with affection, but at the same time, the thought of letting them see her like  _ that  _ made her want to disappear into a hole and never come out again. Sometimes, when looking at her boyfriends, she felt a sense of  _ unfairness;  _ they were both vampires, and their supernatural condition made sure that they’d stay stunningly beautiful forever, while hers, well... turned her into a wolf once a month. There was no use comparing herself to them, but sometimes she couldn’t help it.

But when she looked at them now, she saw nothing but understanding and caring in their eyes. 

“Of course,” Gilbert said.

“Take your time,” Roderich said. He took her hand in both of his.

Erzsébet sniffed again and buried her face in his shoulder with a grateful  _ oof.  _

“Aw, sweetheart,” he said, gently stroking her hair.

“I’m  _ fine,”  _ she mumbled.

Gilbert wrapped his arms around her from the other side, pressing a kiss to her cheek. Erzsébet closed her eyes, wondering how it was that vampire hugs felt so nice and warm. She let herself stay there for a while, just enjoying their presence. “Yeah, okay,” she said at last, taking a shuddering breath. “I’m fine.” She untangled herself from the hug. “Thanks for suggesting this — I really appreciate that.” 

Gilbert pulled away slowly but kissed her again before leaning back in his chair. Roderich kept his hand on hers.

It was time to change the subject — if she kept thinking about full moons and her wonderful boyfriends, she’d probably never stop crying. 

Erzsébet wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve. “So, Gil, what’s with the glitter?” she asked.

“The what?” Gilbert frowned, puzzled, then brought his hand to his face in realization. “Ah, this. You remember Francis?”

Erzsébet blew her nose again. “The one who’s got a weird _ situationship _ with the angry eyebrows barman?”

“That’s the one. Well, he’s got some fairy-themed drag thing going on, and whenever he flutters his wings they spray glitter all around. I was talking to him for maybe five minutes today and this happened.” Gilbert, now self-aware, was looking at his reflection in his spoon and trying to wipe rainbow glitter off his face.

Erzsébet began smiling at his frustrated pout. “I’d like to go to your nightclub some time,” she said. “The people there sound great.”

“Some of them are okay, I guess,” Gilbert said. “Ugh, this isn’t coming off.”

“Leave it be,” Roderich snorted. “You look iridescent, straight out of Twilight.”

“Oh, that’s  _ awesome,”  _ Gilbert deadpanned, but he put down the spoon. “You’re welcome to visit, Erzsi, but aren’t you always working during the night?”

“Well, hopefully, I’ll get some help around the café soon,” Erzsébet said. “Then I might be able to take some nights off. Actually, Erika just told me that they might have someone for the job — oh!” She jumped, turning to look at their table. “Erika and Natalya! I forgot that I didn’t close up yet— “

But they were gone. The table by which they’d sat was clean; even the plates and glasses seemed polished. “They left a few minutes ago,” Roderich said. “The money is in one of the cups. They probably didn’t want to interrupt. The fairy magicked it all clean.”

Erzsébet smiled, relieved. “That’s sweet of them.” With the last customers gone, they were finally alone. She settled comfortably back into her chair. 

“It’ll be nice if you get more free time,” Roderich said hopefully. “With the two of you always taking the night shift, my nights get quite lonely.” 

“Well,  _ you  _ can always come to visit me at the nightclub,” Gilbert wiggled his eyebrows. “I’ll show you to my private room.”

“I —” Roderich looked taken aback. “Sounds suspicious.”

“Sounds exciting, you mean. Stop being a coward.”

“Private room?” Erzsébet asked, interested. 

“Yeah! I figured that some one-on-one with customers could be a good way to sneak a snack here and there, so I talked to our manager and we worked something out. Turns out it’s also really fun -- ” Gilbert launched into an explanation of his new nightly routine. Erzsébet smiled as Roderich, carefully, said that it didn’t sound quite  _ so  _ bad, and Gilbert replied that for him, he’d clear a few hours of his schedule.

From there, the conversation turned to their jobs. Roderich told them about the different pieces he considered suggesting to the conductor of the national symphony orchestra, and the merits of each one of them. Gilbert and Erzsébet did their best to keep up while not understanding half of what he said, and Roderich didn’t notice — or didn’t care — that their eyes became glazed over during the more complicated parts.

They talked until Roderich noticed with a panic that it was past 6 and that he had to leave for a rehearsal. He put on his sunglasses and kissed them both goodbye, ducking his head to avoid sunlight at the exit. Gilbert left a few minutes later, going to get some rest at his apartment. Vampires didn’t need sleep, but Gilbert needed some quiet time to recover from his overly-social nights. 

Erzsébet had a last look around the café, making sure that everything was in place. She felt exhausted, but happy and… hopeful. She locked the door behind her, flipping the sign to  _ Closed.  _ The street was white with snow.  _ Until tomorrow, _ she thought, and finally left as well.


End file.
